The Red Sox and Braves both called Fenway Park home for most of 1915 until the Braves moved into their new ballpark, Braves Field, in August. When the Red Sox reached the World Series in October, the team temporarily left Fenway Park for the bigger Braves Field and won their third World Series Championship. However, Fenway Park didn't lie dormant during the fall as several college and high school football games were held there.

The Red Sox

Record: 101-50, 1st in American LeagueManager: William F. CarriganAttendance: 539,885Postseason: Won World Series

The Red Sox won another pennant in 1915, beating out Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers by 2 ½ games. It was the fourth time that Boston had won the flag in the first 15 years of the American League's existence.

The 1915 team was led by great pitching. The Red Sox had the top four, and five of the top six, American League hurlers in winning percentage. Smokey Joe Wood led the way with a .750 winning percentage (15-5 with a 1.49 ERA) followed by Ernie Shore and Rube Foster, who both finished at .704 with identical 19-8 records. Babe Ruth was fourth in the league at .692 (18-8), while Dutch Leonard's .682 (15-7) was good for sixth in the American League. No Red Sox pitcher lost more than eight games, while the team ERA was 2.39, a stunning mark even given the deflated standards of the Deadball Era.

For the sixth straight year, Tris Speaker led the team in hitting (.322 with 69 RBIs), but fell outside the MVP voting for the first time since 1910. In only 92 at-bats, pitcher Babe Ruth was the team leader in home runs with four and Duffy Lewis drove in a team-high 76 runs. Ruth's first home run at Fenway Park was a three-run homer hit off New York's Ray Caldwell on June 25. No one else on the Red Sox hit more than two home runs in 1915.

The Sox took first place in early July, sweeping three consecutive Fenway Park doubleheaders from Washington on July 5, 6, and 7 - shutting out the visiting Senators in three of the six games and holding them to six runs total. On August 7, the Fenway faithful saw Smokey Joe Wood throw the fifth one-hitter of his career, beating the Indians, 2-0. Three days later, Fenway Park witnessed its first triple play, a 7-3-2 gem initiated by St. Louis Browns left-fielder Burt Shotton.

The Red Sox were the heavy favorite going into the 1915 World Series, the second consecutive matchup between a team from Boston and a team from Philadelphia. The previous year, the Boston Braves defeated the Philadelphia Athletics at Fenway Park. In 1915, the Red Sox used the brand-new, larger capacity Braves Field to host the World Series against the Phillies. Though the Red Sox dropped the first game, they used their dominant pitching to win the next four, clinching their second championship in four years.

October 8-13, 1915 The 1915 World Series

The 1915 World Series was a five-game series between the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies. With the support of their teammates' dazzling defense, three Red Sox pitchers combined to toss five complete games in the series.

Game One was played in sloppy conditions, as the Baker Bowl grounds crew put oil on the field and then burned it in the hopes of drying up the field before the game.

Philadelphia had Grover Cleveland Alexander, who ultimately collected 373 career victories, primed to pitch in at least three games. Boston countered with 24-year old Ernie Shore. The young Boston hurler out-pitched Alexander but Philadelphia started a rally in the bottom of the eighth inning, after Red Sox shortstop Everett Scott forgot to cover second base on a remarkable play by his second baseman Jack Barry. The play allowed the Phillies to score two go-ahead runs and secure a 3-1 victory in the series opener.

Boston's Rube Foster was the star of Game Two, pitching a three-hitter and collecting the go-ahead RBI in the ninth inning on his third hit of the game. Foster's efforts earned the Red Sox a 2-1, series-tying victory.

Game Three took place at Braves Field in Boston, borrowed by the Red Sox because it could accommodate more fans than Fenway Park. Alexander took the mound again for the Phillies, while Boston player/manager Bill Carrigan passed over rookie sensation Babe Ruth and veteran Smokey Joe Wood, and chose left-hander Dutch Leonard to take the ball instead. Leonard pitched well and for the second straight game, the score was tied at one going into the final inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Duffy Lewis drove in Harry Hooper with two outs to give Boston a walk-off win and a 2-1 series lead.

Game Four was played on Columbus Day and over 10,000 fans were turned away. The festive day featured three brass bands and real Scottish bag pipers. For the third game in a row, Boston won by the score of 2-1 thanks in large part to Ernie Shore's second complete game of the series and Duffy Lewis' runs-scoring double.

The series returned to Philadelphia for Game Five, which featured four home runs and a complete game by Rube Foster. Boston trailed by two runs in the eighth inning but Duffy Lewis came through again and tied the game with a two-run homer. In the top of the ninth inning, Harry Hooper hit a go-ahead home run and in the bottom half of the inning, Rube Foster retired the side to give the Red Sox a series-clinching, 5-4 victory and their second World Championship in four years.

Non-Red Sox Baseball At Fenway Park

After winning the World Series at Fenway Park in 1914, the Boston Braves continued to use the home of the Red Sox in 1915, while their new ballpark, Braves Field, was being built. After playing a pair of April exhibition games against New England colleges, the Braves played at Fenway Park until the end of July. Braves Field opened on August 18, 1915, though the Braves' final home game at Fenway Park came three weeks earlier thanks to a lengthy road trip that lasted from July 27 through August 16. During the 1915 season, the Braves went 32-19 at Fenway Park with one tie game, bringing their cumulative regular season record at Fenway Park (including four games in 1913 and the latter part of the 1914 season) to 56-26-3.

1915 Non-Red Sox Baseball At Fenway Park

April 10

Boston College High School 19, Cambridge Latin 2

April 12

Boston Braves 7, Harvard College 3

April 13

Boston Braves 6, Brown University 0

April 14

Philadelphia Phillies 3, Boston Braves 0

April 15

Philadelphia Phillies 7, Boston Braves 1

April 17

Boston Braves 5, Brooklyn Robins 1

April 19

Boston Braves 7, Brooklyn Robins 2

April 19

Boston Braves 6, Brooklyn Robins 4

April 20

Boston Braves 4, Brooklyn Robins 3

April 21

Brooklyn Robins 8, Boston Braves 4

May 6

New York Giants 3, Boston Braves 1

May 7

Boston Braves 11, New York Giants 7

May 8

Boston Braves 4, New York Giants 3

May 10

Boston Braves 14, New York Giants 9

May 11

St. Louis Cardinals 5, Boston Braves 1

May 13

Boston Braves 6, St. Louis Cardinals 2

May 14

St. Louis Cardinals 5, Boston Braves 4

May 15

Pittsburgh Pirates 10, Boston Braves 6

May 18

Boston Braves 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 2

May 19

Pittsburgh Pirates 7, Boston Braves 0

May 20

Boston Braves 4, Cincinnati Reds 2

May 21

Chicago Cubs 3, Boston Braves 2

May 22

Chicago Cubs 5, Boston Braves 4

May 24

Chicago Cubs 9, Boston Braves 1

May 25

Boston Braves 3, Cincinnati Reds 1

May 27

Cincinnati Reds 6, Boston Braves 0

May 28

Boston Braves 5, Philadelphia Phillies 2

May 28

Boston Braves 5, Philadelphia Phillies 4

May 29

Boston Braves 9, Philadelphia Phillies 4

May 31

Boston Braves 2, Philadelphia Phillies 1

May 31

Philadelphia Phillies 5, Boston Braves 2

June 1

Boston Braves 7, New York Giants 0

June 2

Boston Braves 5, New York Giants 5 (Tie)

June 3

New York Giants 10, Boston Braves 3

June 22

Boston Braves 3, Brooklyn Robins 2

June 23

Boston Braves 3, Brooklyn Robins 2

June 24

Boston Braves 6, Brooklyn Robins 0

July 9

Boston Braves 4, St. Louis Cardinals 3

July 10

St. Louis Cardinals 7, Boston Braves 1

July 10

Boston Braves 3, St. Louis Cardinals 1

July 12

St. Louis Cardinals 2, Boston Braves 1

July 12

St. Louis Cardinals 4, Boston Braves 3

July 13

Pittsburgh Pirates 3, Boston Braves 1

July 13

Boston Braves 7, Pittsburgh Pirates 6

July 15

Boston Braves 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 2

July 16

Boston Braves 6, Pittsburgh Pirates 5

July 17

Boston Braves 3, Cincinnati Reds 2

July 17

Boston Braves 3, Cincinnati Reds 2

July 19

Boston Braves 4, Cincinnati Reds 1

July 20

Boston Braves 6, Cincinnati Reds 2

July 21

Cincinnati Reds 2, Boston Braves 1

July 22

Boston Braves 4, Chicago Cubs 3

July 23

Boston Braves 2, Chicago Cubs 1

July 24

Boston Braves 1, Chicago Cubs 0

July 26

Boston Braves 1, Chicago Cubs 0

More Than a Ballpark™

On May 23, 1915, Fenway Park witnessed a military mass in memory of the American soldiers and sailors who died in the Spanish-American War. The event was presented by the United Spanish War Veterans and attracted 15,000 patrons, including Massachusetts Governor David I. Walsh and Boston Mayor James Michael Curley.

The following month, a unique doubleheader took place at Fenway Park. On June 5, after the Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, the Boston Lacrosse Club and the New York A.A. program played a game on Fenway's turf. The hometown lacrosse team emerged with a 9-2 victory. Later in the year, Fenway Park welcomed several amateur football games again, including a memorable Ivy League contest between Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania.

Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin achieved his American dream when the former bellhop emigrated from Quebec and made his fortune in the States. Apart from leading the Red Sox, Lannin maintained strong ties to his childhood sport of lacrosse and on June 5, 1915, Fenway Park hosted an unprecedented baseball/lacrosse doubleheader.

In the opening game, Rube Foster pitched a four-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, leading the Red Sox to a 4-2 victory before a crowd of 10,000 fans.

Roughly half the crowd remained for the ensuing contest between the Boston Lacrosse Club and the New York Lacrosse A.A. The game started just 15 minutes after the Red Sox recorded the final out and was played on a field laid out in roughly the same fashion as the 2010 Winter Classic rink (between the two dugouts on the crest between the infield and outfield). The Boston team prevailed by a score of 9-2 in a game marked by aggressive play and superb passing.

November 6, 1915 Dartmouth 7, University of Pennsylvania 3

On the day after the British had taken Baghdad in the spreading conflict that was the First World War, the Boston Globe front page headline reported "Dartmouth Snatches Game Out of The Fire." A crowd of 12,000 was sent home cheering due to a last-minute Dartmouth touchdown pass and following the game hundreds of Dartmouth students raced onto the field where they did a snake dance around the grass led by the college band. Not only did they sing "Fight for Dartmouth," a song written expressly for this game, but they also marched from the ballpark to the Colonial Theater where they took in an evening performance of "Watch Your Step."